A new lingerie line, “Inspired” by Playful Promises, recently launched a campaign featuring Violet Chachki. Chachki’s appointment is historical because the model is also a famous drag performer.

Truly inspirational lingerie

Inspired’s “inspiration” originated from Bettie Page, a ’50s fashion icon and groundbreaking pin-up model in her own right.

“Bettie Page is a fitting style icon for the line,” says Shadeen Francis, therapist, speaker, and educator.

Francis adds that Page pushed societal standards for seduction and sexual expression through her work as a model. “The ’50s and ’60s were marked by modesty and purity,” she says. “Despite modeling far beyond the boundaries of what was considered appropriate, she became a star celebrated for her beauty and sex appeal.”

“Bettie Page has been a big inspiration for my drag character for a long time, so it’s kind of full circle for me,” adds Chachki. “I reference her a lot in my work so it was kind of the perfect pairing for me and a dream job.”

For the campaign, the RuPaul’s Drag Race winner wears a diverse selection of vintage, pin-up-like pieces. So, pieces, such as bustier bras, high-waisted underwear, corsets, and garter belts, are in the line, reports Harpers Bazaar.

Historical and important

Although it’s monumental that Chachki is heading a campaign that a cis woman traditionally would lead, Chachki’s appointment also is important for onlookers.

“Representation is important to self-esteem and identity development,” says Francis. But if you never see yourself represented in the world, you miss one of the key ways people learn to feel accepted and capable.

And Francis adds that welcoming more people into mainstream media and giving them access to beauty empowers communities of people to see themselves as beautiful in their own right. “Drag queens, trans people, and gender non-conforming people are all beautiful. [They] deserve to live in a society that reflects that.”

VIZIN, top 40 Billboard artist, adds that “mainstream” is a fickle word. It will redefine itself as society continues to evolve and rethink beauty ideals.

“Violet is a gorgeous woman who redefines what it means to be a beauty,” VIZIN adds. “Celebrate life, love yourself unapologetically, and let the beauty inside of you match how you present yourself to the world on the outside. Be bold, be beautiful, be you.”

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Modern day models come in all shapes and sizes.

And thanks to people like Andreja Pejić, fashion fanatics have become accustomed to seeing transgender models.

Just recently, Hanne Gaby Odiele, a famous international model, recently revealed she’s intersex in hopes to normalize the status.

What’s intersex?

People who identify as intersex are born with reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t fall into the traditional male or female category.

This means a person could have both male and female reproductive organs, or could have external male genitalia and internal female reproductive organs, or the opposite, or have XX and XY chromosomes in cells all through their body, the Intersex Society of North America reports.

In a USA Today interview, Odiele states that she revealed her status because the condition shouldn’t be taboo.

“At this point, in this day and age, it should be perfectly all right to talk about this,” Odiele says.

Odiele’s story

Odiele was born with XY chromosomes—chromosomes typically found in males—and XX chromosomes, as well as internal, un-descended testes.

The model was told that she’d have to get her testes removed or she could develop cancer and impair her development as a female, Glamour reports. So, when Odiele turned 18, she had the surgery, although she didn’t fully understand the impact the procedure would have on her body.

Intersex surgeries are not needed and are often suggested so a person can appear more male or female.

“It’s not that big of a deal being intersex,” Odiele says. “If they were just honest from the beginning…It became a trauma because of what they did.”

Odiele’s intersex status hasn’t got in the way of her fame. After all, the 29-year-old supermodel has worked with the likes of Alexander Wang.

The ever-changing fashion industry

With a little research, you can easily discover there are many models who don’t traditionally fit into male or female fashion.

Rain Dove, androgynous model, has made a name for her self by showing how easy it is to “look” female or male. The model often displays various looks on Instagram and reports how she was treated when dressed as male vs. female. Hear a snippet of her story below.

And it appears that the fashion industry, as a whole, is on the normalization train, too. According to Huffington Post UK, Gucci, Guess, and Zara have all recently launched gender-neutral lines. The lines are supposed to help people—no matter their gender—find clothing that works with individual lifestyles.

We can only assume that more stories like the above will come to light in the coming year and hope that the industry—and public—react kindly. After all, the future is technically gender-whatever.

Related on EcoSalon
The Harrowing Story of Being Transgender in Prison
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The post This Intersex Model Fuels the Fashion Industry’s Gender Revolution appeared first on EcoSalon.

Millennials: You can now breath a collective sigh of relief because everyone is starting to get tired of your boring, aging selves. Generation Z… It’s your turn. And the thing that the media and researchers are zeroing in on is, not surprisingly, your sexuality.

Gen Z and Gender

Generation Z is totally over gender and sexuality norms, a survey from J. Walter Thompson Innovation Group reports. The trend forecasting agency has discovered that unlike previous generations, people who are aged 13-20-years-old are more likely to be gender fluid. In fact, only 48 percent of Generation Z views themselves as exclusively heterosexual.

The report was done to further study research conducted in May 2015. That preliminary research showed that 81 percent of Gen Z said “gender doesn’t define a person as much as it used to,” Shepherd Laughlin, director of trendspotting at J. Walter Thompson, said.

That may not seem like a huge percentage, but when compared to the percentage of Millennials (age 21-34) asked the same question, 65 percent said they identified as purely heterosexual.

The study discovered the above information by asking Gen Z study participants to rate their sexuality on a scale from zero-“completely straight”-to six-“completely homosexual.”

“More than a third of the young demographic chose a number between one and five, indicating that they were bisexual to some degree,” Vice reports. “Only 24 percent of their older counterparts identified this way.”

Changing the Gender Norm on Every Level

The study also delved into how the younger generation views gender as a whole:

• The survey found that 56 percent of Gen Z “said they knew someone who went by gender neutral pronouns, such as they, them, or ze.” This was compared to 43 percent of Millennials.
• The findings also revealed that more than a third of Gen Z “strongly agreed that gender did not define a person as much as it used to.”
• And Generation Z also tends to reject the gender binary. “Only 44 percent said they always bought clothes designed for their own gender, versus 54 percent of Millennials,” Vice reports. “They also felt strongly that public spaces should provide access to gender neutral bathrooms, with 70 percent of Gen Zs coming out in support of the move compared to 57 percent of 21–34-year-olds.”

One Notable Flaw

Although this survey is quite interesting, it has one major flaw: it polled less than 1,000 respondents.

When asked about this issue, Laughlin said that “he has 90 percent confidence that the results are accurate and can be generalized for the whole country”-much of that confidence comes from “clear patterns across the different questions that show that Gen Z has a more complex and less binary approach to gender than Millennials.”

Related on EcoSalon

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Image of young couple via Shutterstock

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New York State just did an awesome thing — a really awesome, totally progressive thing. Governor Cuomo announced that gender reassignment surgery has to be covered by health insurance throughout the entire state.

We recently got wind of this stellar news last week when @NYTimesHealth tweeted the following:

Insurers in New York Must Cover Gender Reassignment Surgery, Cuomo Says http://nyti.ms/1skxKUG

According to Kaiser Health News, the announcement was made last week via letter from Governor Cuomo to insurance agencies. The governor came to this conclusion because, “state law requires insurance coverage for the diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders.” This covers people who have a “mismatch between their birth sex and their internal sense of gender.”

So, insurance coverage would naturally cover treatment for this condition, which is commonly called gender dysphoria.

Along with the surgery, health insurance companies also must cover hormone treatment, as well as the preparation it takes a person who is planning to have the surgery. It also must take into account recovery time.

New York is now one of about a handful of other states that have made similar rulings. These other states include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oregon, Vermont, and also Washington, D.C., reports Medical Daily. The hope is that this type of coverage will soon become the norm and other states will follow in these progressive states’ footsteps. If a health insurance plan doesn’t cover this type of surgery, a person typically has to raise their own money, as the surgeries (and prep, recovery) are quite expensive.

Also of note: The NY Daily News reports that the number of companies that cover gender reassignment surgery has “more than doubled in the past year.”

Let’s hope these positive trends continue.

Related on EcoSalon

That Happened: Smith College Rejects a Transgender Student

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‘Orange Is the New Black’—And I’m Addicted: That Happened

Image: Ted Eytan

The post Heck, Yes! Gender Reassignment Surgery Costs to be Covered by New York Insurers appeared first on EcoSalon.

Laugh and learn by digging deep into these five stand up comedians who address serious issues through comedy.

“What’s the deal with airline food?”

Now that we’ve gotten the heavy-hitting stuff out of the way, let’s talk about other things.

Comedy serves as a natural distraction and relief from the trials and tribulations of everyday life. However, it doesn’t always have to be light one-liners, and can instead serve as a powerful medium for addressing heavy, hard-to-digest dialogue in a different, more understandable context.

Check out these five stand up comedians who don’t always keep things comfortable and instead use part of their artform for social consciousness.

Disclaimer: Some clips below are NSFW, so view at your own discretion.

Maria Bamford

I won’t mince words: Maria Bamford is one of my favorite stand up comedians on the planet and has been so since I first watched her on Comedy Central Presents as a kid. As an unorthodox, quirky female comedian with bipolar disorder — “the new gladiator sandal,” as she calls it — she addresses issues such as gender inequality, mental illness, and suicide in ways that bring about an”Aha!” kind of perspective, clarity, and laughter. The spaces into which she pushes the medium are often uncomfortable, but wildly important.

Tig Notaro

Imagine for a moment that you’re hospitalized with a life-threatening disease. Then, on top of that, your mother passes away a few days after you’re discharged. Now on TOP of that, your relationship ends. Now on TOP of that, you’re diagnosed with breast cancer and require a double mastectomy. Meet Tig Notaro.

“Hello. Good evening, hello. I have cancer, how are you? Hi, how are you? Is everybody having a good time? I have cancer, how are you?”

Notaro experienced what seems like a lifetime of tragic events in the span of four months, and her stand up special, “Tig Notaro: Live!” — recorded just days after she was diagnosed with cancer — is unlike any other comedy album you’ll ever hear as it intimately addresses all of the above with humor, emotion, and an impact that cannot be understated.

Patton Oswalt

If you don’t recognize Oswalt’s name from his illustrious stand up comedy career, you may recognize him from his enormous social media presence that has been the subject of many articles, tweets, and other discussions, which have collectively made Oswalt into one of culture’s biggest critics and satirists.

Though he’s currently on a much-needed break from social media, he utilizes his Twitter following of 1.8 million as a significant off-stage platform to offer challenging perspectives both in support of liberal causes and as critique of the leftist PC police who seem eager to judge and sensationalize nearly anything.

Danielle K.L. Grégoire

While a wonderful stand up herself, Danielle’s biggest social impact comes from her founding and management of The Comedy Womb, a “female-focused-but-not-female-exclusive” stand up comedy space in Seattle. In the boy’s club that is the greater comedy world, Grégoire has successfully created a place where female stand up comedians can feel safe and supported as the Womb reserves half of its open mic spots for self-identifying women comedians. Adding in the room’s well-understood content policy against misogyny, racism, homophobia or hate-ridden material, Grégoire has created a place for everyone to laugh together.

Margaret Cho

Loud. Crass. Cho.

Maragaret Cho is an undeniably unique figure in the stand up comedy world, and as a bisexual, female, Asian-American comedian, she is a subcultural reservoir from which many perspectives may be drawn. The subject matter of her comedy focuses at length on LGBT issues — helping create her large following in this community — while also covering race, eating disorders, substance abuse, gender, and more.

Follow Garth on Twitter @garthinkingcap

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Photo by Paul Hocksenar

The post 5 Conscious Stand Up Comedians Redefining Comedy appeared first on EcoSalon.

I had no idea that growing a beard meant diving (beard first) into a conversation about societal constructs. Who knew facial hair could make such a difference?

So, I’m a white guy, and being a white guy means being relatively free to do and be whatever I want without fear of being treated differently — let alone facing real, toxic discrimination — based on the way I look. It’s not fair, but it’s largely the truth.

One of my only physically differentiating factors is my brown, bushy beard, and surprisingly, it has taught me a lot about gender, society’s expectations, and maybe even a smidgen about racism.

Turn down the beard, turn up the body image issues

Men are not subjected to anywhere near the level of body shaming that women face, but as I’ve come to discover, even a tiny bit can sting.

For a lot of men, there’s shame and disappointment in the inability to grow “proper” facial hair, and shaving mine for the first time in over a year was a difficult glimpse into that world. Shaving my beard meant losing part of who I am, part of my (perceived) masculinity, and part of my identity. It was a lifestyle shift I was not prepared to make.

Without a beard, social interactions became notably different; I felt taken less seriously at work; my girlfriend at the time even told me in blunt honesty that she “just wasn’t attracted” to me without it.

Ouch.

But in playing devil’s advocate against myself, she sort of had a point: the ever-growing popularity of beards have made them into somewhat of a masculine expectation, so voluntarily going against the grain (zing) with a bare face means choosing the look that society may deem “lesser” at the moment. And though it’s important to realize we are solely responsible for how we accept or react to situations like this, feeling comfortable in your own skin can be a difficult proposition under any circumstances.

The “Ron Swanson Effect”

Some of history’s greatest minds and leaders — Honest Abe, Ernest Hemingway, and beyond — donned serious facial foliage, which sensibly correlates given that beards have been shown to give off signals of maturity, independence, aggression, and leadership, which are all traits of typical alpha males. That being said, television and the internet have popularized hypermasculinity and reinforced stark gender roles to the point of pure caricature, and Ron Swanson — Nick Offerman’s character in NBC’s “Parks and Recreation” — is the perfect example. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big “Parks and Rec” fan, but it’s disappointing how wildly popular Swanson’s bastardization of masculinity has become.

The most common associations my beard receives: Steak. Guns. Liquor. Lumberjack (I live in Seattle). “Duck Dynasty”. Drugs. Terrorist (seriously?). Beer. Bacon (internet, I’m extra blaming you for this one). Sure, these can be humorous on occasion, but why must we perpetuate such an antiquated view of masculinity when the world is being opened up to such a fluid range of personal identity?

In my experience, being bearded has automatically cast a wide array of associations and assumptions about my personality, abilities, interests, and opinions all with one glance. And although my bearded archetype is nowhere near the toxicity of actual racism, as a white dude, it’s the closest thing I’ve experienced.

Growing a beard often means being subjected to every expectation of what a man “should be,” when in reality, having a beard means one thing, and one thing only: you can grow hair on your face.

Follow Garth on Twitter @garthinkingcap

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Photo by Alejandro H.

The post The Beard Identity: What Growing a Beard Taught Me About Gender Roles (and Maybe Even Race) appeared first on EcoSalon.

While all the hubbub around Seth McFarlane’s Oscar homage to sexism was bouncing around the country, I experienced another side of men here in Los Angeles—one I’m willing to call the return of the Sacred Masculine.

I’ve been calling it the best men-are-awesome ten days ever: Overlapping the Oscars, I attended events featuring four of the most compelling, artistic men of modernity: First was an epic performance by Tomahawk fronted by former Faith No More lead singer Mike Patton. He’s known for his ability to switch from operatic, ballady vocals to insane sounding shouts, raps, and indescribably strange noises. He’s both extremely playful and deadly serious, and 100 percent wow-worthy. Second, was the album release concert for the new Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds record, Push the Sky Away. Like Patton, Cave is a master at showcasing his vulnerability. He also rears a slightly terrifying side, screaming, wailing, arms waving. It’s fantastic, thrilling and some of the most life-changing music I’ve ever experienced. The third event was the sixth time I’ve seen composer/DJ Amon Tobin perform. His shy persona (we met in the lobby) seems to perfectly balance his output of the boldest and most creative electronic music being made today. Tobin seems to be writing a new language—one that reaches beyond Earth’s boundaries. And, speaking of aliens, the last event in those ten-days of men-are-awesome was my first viewing of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 on the big screen at LACMA (I’ve seen it a dozen times on TVs, and it’s a totally different experience). Kubrick may have been a jerk to work with, but he was a most serious artist, with sensitivities and aesthetics unrivaled to this day.

We hear a lot about women’s rights, the goddess movement and the return of the Sacred Feminine. While bra-burning Steinem days may be long gone, we ladies still have our battles to fight as we struggle to make as much money as our testicled counterparts, or thwart unnecessary objectification and violence while still honoring what it means to be a woman responsible for bringing human life to this planet and nurturing it into self-sufficiency. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg is picking up quite a bit of slack for her Lean In campaign and new book urging women to claim our rightful place in the mix. Women who speak up are often called bossy and bitchy, she said in her recent 60 Minutes interview, while men who demonstrate the same behaviors are hailed as leaders. Modern women are expected to earn our keep but still be submissive and sexy, virtually all the time. Yes, clearly, there is much to work out; and whether the return of the Sacred Feminine is underway or not, doesn’t it seem just as important, if not more so, that we look to encourage the return of Sacred Masculine as well if anything’s really going to change?

I’ll admit it: I laughed at McFarlane’s “We Saw Your Boobs” song. I liked that it was racy, and thought it was challenging the uptightness of the Oscars more than it was offensive. Besides, eventually, most everything is going to offend somebody. And McFarlane was simply illustrating the sad truth of where we’re at as a nation, a culture, a species. Of course we saw boobs…we always see boobs. Every so often (please, God, how about more of the “often” part?), we see Daniel Craig’s ass, too. During Django Unchained, when Jamie Foxx’s character is captured and hanging naked upside down, I seriously, embarrassingly, turned to my partner (who works in Hollywood art departments) and asked him if that was, in fact, Jamie Foxx’s actual penis. It seemed impossible to me that a man would show himself in that way.

And that really got me thinking.

Not only do women regularly take it all off on the screen, but we most often do it alone, especially if there’s a man in the scene. That sounds less like sexism on the part of men and more like an expression of their sheer terror and fear, perhaps even a little bit of jealousy. Not necessarily from the actors or filmmakers, but from the male audience in general who eschew seeing other naked men, mostly because that’s what they’ve been taught. I’m not saying we don’t objectify and mistreat women (we certainly do) as a result of the frequent nakedness (or in spite of it), but there is another problem we don’t talk about nearly as often, and that’s just how traumatized our collective image of men is.

Whether or not a man has been circumcised, millions and millions are and have been throughout history, and that has greatly shaped how our society–and men–view the world and their place in it. Circumcision is a traumatic, unnecessary genital mutilation that if we did it when they were just a few months older, would be considered a horrific, punishable crime. It scars, desensitizes and sometimes even severely damages the penis. But we do it anyway. We don’t talk much about it. We certainly don’t apologize for it. The effects of sexual trauma, as we know from the countless childhood molestation and rape cases, can last a lifetime. It can distort relationships with the opposite sex. It can cause resentment, fear and dozens of other emotional issues not uncommon in our world today. Men need to talk about this, heal from this and hopefully help stop it for future generations.

Of course, circumcision is not the only cause for modern man’s awkwardness and lack of sensitivity, but it’s a damn good place to start looking at how to heal these issues our men face. Like Patton, Cave, Tobin and Kubrick, some men channel the male awkwardness into art. They confront what masculinity means directly, looking at it through the lens of creativity rather than the muddled goggles of society’s acceptable definitions. Men coming to grips with their fears and vulnerabilities become stronger, not weaker. Surrender is acknowledging what you can and cannot change. And art is one of the best ways to explore and even transcend that.

Who is the Sacred Masculine? I’m not exactly sure. We can stereotype him as a New-Agey pony-tailed man who’s not afraid to cry or eat tofu. But, come on. Men don’t have to give up being men (but giving up meat’s not a bad choice) any more than a woman has to give up her bra. We don’t need to revert to archaic definitions of genders; we are evolving and creating a new tribe, new ways of honoring and expressing ourselves. It requires rethinking, redefining and re-experiencing who we are as both men and women and everyone else in between. Like Nick Cave sings on the title track of the new record:

And if you feel you got everything you came for
If you got everything and you don’t want no more
You’ve got it, just keep on pushing and, keep on pushing and
Push the sky away

Sexism is, and always has been, a two-way street. The definitions our society puts on our gender roles can only be rewritten if we look at the masculine as well as the feminine–and just how similar they really are, both in their most magnificent glory and constricting oppression.

Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

Image: MiiiSH

The post The Other Side of Sexism and the Return of The Sacred Masculine appeared first on EcoSalon.

A round-up of what we’re reading right now. 

Artisanal. Curated. Tweeps. All words we love to hate. Thankfully, someone curated compiled a whole list of them. [Via The Atlantic]

Are travel guidebooks bending over backwards to excuse the world’s “thuggish regimes?” One writer poses that we should think about what is written within the pages of some of the most well respected travel literature. [Via Foreign Policy]

Why we need to start embracing germs. [Via Slate]

A Saudi Arabian female athlete is called a “prostitute” for competing at the Olympics. And she’s only 16. [Via The Frisky]

Equalizing the gender employment gap? As it turns out, women lost fewer jobs during the recession. Maybe times are changing. [Via Wall Street Journal]

Omelette in bed? This and more for the morning after, including a spoonful of peanut butter. [Via How About We]

The “Daddy State”: a place where male politicians dictate how women care for our infants and decide what birth control is most suitable for us. [Via Huffington Post]

There’s still time to catch up on your summer reading! If you’re interested in food, start with this list. [Via Grist]

Just how would Paul Ryan as Vice President affect women’s health? Here are five reasons the answer is not looking good. [Via Think Progress]

Put the essence of summer in a jar: make your own sun-dried tomatoes. [Via Big Girls Small Kitchen]

Image: jwyg

The post Link Love: Words We Love to Hate, Foods for the Morning After and Reasons to Embrace Germs appeared first on EcoSalon.

A round-up of what we’re reading right now. 

IKEA addict? Maybe you should put all those blue bags with yellow lettered handles to good use. Like in a dress. [Via Inhabitat]

What is the definition of a “Real Woman”? Whatever it is, please stop calling me one. [Via Thought Catalog]

Haven’t joined a CSA yet? You should, and if you’re wondering how to go about it, here’s a great guide to help you navigate.  [Via Small Kitchen College]

Keeping an eye on the indie designer scene in Beijing? Here are nine to pay attention to. [Via Afar]

McMansions out and tiny homes in; we approve of this minimalist trend and will always take more micro-home eye candy like this one. [Via Curbed]

Finally someone has a good recipe for making gluten free sandwich bread at home. [Via Saveur]

Outdoor backyard movie night? There really can’t be a better way to spend a late summer evening. [Via CasaSugar]

The U.S. has no national vacation policy, how is this affecting productivity and why are we so bad at checking out? [Via The Atlantic]

A diet that’s high in sugar can lead to memory loss. [Via Organic Authority]

Image: Gewerbemuseum

The post Link Love: Making Dresses Out of IKEA Bags and How the Lack of U.S. National Vacation Policy Affects Productivity appeared first on EcoSalon.

Does cycle chic help or hinder the movement?

I agree in many respects with the tenets of Copenhagen Cycle Chic, brainchild of marketing professional Mikael Colville-Andersen, which he promotes on his blog of the same name as well as in speaking tours around the world. A post from 2009 sums up his mission well: You don’t need special clothes to bicycle in, you just need to look in your own closet. Demonstrating that bicycling can suit your existing lifestyle and that there is no need to spend a lot of money or force yourself into some kind of athletic or rugged mold, is one of the goals of my forthcoming book, Everyday Bicycling.

Unfortunately, instead of sticking to this inclusive and welcoming message, Colville-Andersen takes every opportunity to instead police what people choose to wear, and in an alarmingly gendered manner. Dare to take issue, and he’ll draw the line even more starkly, dismissively accusing you of factionalism, in prose peppered with ad hominem attacks (try it, you’ll see). It’s a tone reminiscent of that of the hardcore proponents of vehicular cycling; good common sense ideas presented in an extreme and exclusionary manner.

Helmets and technical cycling clothes, are particular targets. In the annals of Cycle Chic, to wear these things is more than a fashion faux pas, it’s socially irresponsible; a tacit endorsement of “profiteering” and a “Culture of Fear” — two of the catch phrases of which Colville-Andersen’s writing almost entirely consists.

Much of this fashion policing is directed, explicitly or implicitly, at women. “Bike advocacy in high heels” is another frequently heard catch phrase, a term which can perhaps best be understood by reading the Cycle Chic Manifesto(which comes with the slippery disclaimer that it is only partly serious): “I embrace my responsibility to contribute visually to a more aesthetically pleasing urban landscape” is one pledge, followed by “I am aware that my mere prescence in said urban landscape will inspire others without me being labelled as a ‘bicycle activist’.” Obviously these pledges could be and surely are taken to heart by both men and women, but I will submit that according to the blog’s FAQ, females apparently make up the majority of its audience, and second, that there is not exactly a rich cultural tradition of men admonishing other men to shut up and look pretty, or be seen rather than heard, or to arrange their public lives so as to be aesthetically pleasing.

Historically, in fact, Cycle Chic was all about men leering at women. It’s described by its founder in an early interview as being literally about women as aesthetic objects:

“Danish and European women just happen to be stylish. It’s elegant, it’s classy. It’s Europe. And, I’m a man. I enjoy looking at aesthetically pleasing women. If I lived in a forest, I’d probably take pictures of the nicest trees.”

The inimitable Bikeyface has drawn the best response (used here with permission):

Colville-Andersen’s reply to this cartoon sadly illustrates some of the problems that arise in defining and critiquing his movement.

I think in part the divide between Cycle Chic’s purported message and its actual one is in the idea of what is, or should be “normal.” After all, it was perfectly normal for decades for women to value themselves and be valued for their appearance and to achieve social acceptance by catering to the aesthetic demands of male onlookers.

The world is a little more complicated now — at least it is in the United States. I recognize that gender politics in Denmark might vary, but here it is beyond tone deaf to assume that realizing you can bike without wearing Lycra is the only barrier to women embracing bicycling. In my observation, people do a pretty good job figuring that out on their own. We do, however, suffer some major economic and social barriers, from unequal division of paid and unpaid labor, to the consequences of antiquated maternity and paternity leave laws, to outright discrimination and double standards both socially and in the workplace. Barriers to bicycling are far more complicated than knowing you can bike in high heels; if that were all there was to it, we wouldn’t need a guy in Europe to come point out the solution.

Among the many who have embraced the idea (and name) of Cycle Chic for its basic tenets, not all have also taken on the tone and prejudices of its founder. It’s been a pleasure in the last few years to meet several devotees of the philosophy who have crafted it into something empowering, playful, and fun, rejecting some of the more extreme stances of the original. These folks hardly invented the practice of everyday bicycling, but they have injected a certain costumey flair into U.S. bike culture that strikes a chord with a range of people who might not otherwise get excited about cycling. This appeal is culturally specific, however, and that culture is difficult, in the U.S., to separate from the bummer stereotype of elitism. I don’t think that’s a reason not to dress chic on a bike; I do think it’s foolish to claim that it’s the highest form of advocacy in a cultural and economic situation where bicycling is falsely viewed, and subsequently de-funded, as an upper class leisure activity.

I hypothesize that Cycle Chic’s true message and appeal is at its base, at least in North America, that it seeks to normalize a gendered code of conduct that, sadly, still holds considerable appeal among both sexes. Its message is that bicycling can be a means of, rather than a barrier to, conforming to a certain set of standards of gender and class stereotypes. Access to these standards is far from universal.

In order to truly break down barriers to bicycling, it’s necessary to understand what those barriers are; which requires listening to people, rather than mocking them. It will also require, perhaps to the chagrin of Cycle Chic purists, a whole hell of a lot of activism. I don’t know about Denmark, but here in the US there’s a lot of work to be done on multiple fronts of gender parity and cycling policy, from the floors of community bike shops to the halls of Congress. Great things can certainly be achieved while wearing high heels, but never solely by doing so.

I began cycling over a decade ago wearing regular clothes and as an alternative to the bus; in more recent years, I was overjoyed to discover the wonders of the chamois and the technical cycling rain jacket. To get anthropological for a moment, here in the US, cycling for sport is one of the main avenues of entry into bicycling, and there is a vibrant, though hardly mandatory, cross-over between sports and transportation cycling. People who ride bikes in the US fall along a broad spectrum between the two, exploring and code-switching at will. Dressing up to the nines and riding fast across town on a sporty road bike are two of life’s pleasures that I find are best enjoyed jointly. Your experience may, and probably does, vary. To revert to the merely editorial: Anyone who claims that you have to choose sides, or define your style at all, is wrong, and isn’t having as much fun as you.

In summary, Cycle Chic has great potential as a movement, a potential which has been fully realized by many of its fans. It’s unfortunate, therefore, that its founder chooses instead to promote a vision of “normal, mainstream” bicycle transportation that is sexist, exclusive in many North American contexts, and unrealistic as an advocacy strategy.

I have gone to the trouble of making these points at this time, despite feeling that they are fairly obvious and an easy target, and also despite my dread of the dismissive lecturing that is sure to come my way as result, because Colville-Andersen will be headlining the fashion show component of the second National Women’s Bicycling Summit in Long Beach this September (he is also the lead keynote of Pro Walk / Pro Bike immediately prior, sharing the podium with six other men and one woman). It is an interesting time in the US, with bicycling becoming daily more mainstream, though hardly in a unitary or consistent manner, and these events are an opportunity to coordinate strategies for making the bike’s popularity stick. Fashion will surely play a part, among many other forces, and I’m looking forward to the proceedings as an opportunity for — hopefully — constructive dialogue. There’s no reason the conversation shouldn’t start now.

Originally published on Taking the Lane and reprinted with permission.

Image: futureshape

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